1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved way of accurately and continuously accounting for the identity, quantity, supplier and supplier's lot number of microingredients used in the manufacture of medicated feed rations provided to animals in a feedlot.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
The need to provide animals with vitamins, minerals, proteins, enzymes, hormones, antibiotics, worm medicines, and other nutritional supplements and medications is well recognized in the livestock and poultry industries. The manner in which these supplements are mixed together and added to a consumptive fluid carrier such as water is disclosed in great detail in U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,971 to Pratt, and is incorporated herein by reference.
In particular, it is well known to use computer-controlled machinery to dispense metered amounts of micro-ingredients into a mixing tank and thereafter mix these microingredients with water to form a slurry mixture. In a conventional manner, the prepared slurry is fed directly to animals or is applied to animal feed rations using mixing or spraying technology well known in the art.
As most animal feed supplements include pharmaceutical substances, the production of these "medicated feeds" are subject to the regulations of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 21 CFR Ch.1, Part 225 "Current Good Manufacturing Practice for Medicated Feeds", incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Consequently, the equipment and procedures used at particular feedlots to produce "medicated feed" rations are routinely inspected by FDA officials to ensure compliance with the above-cited FDA regulations. In order to monitor compliance with FDA regulations, feedlots producing medicated feeds on location are required to maintain written records documenting the types and amounts of microingredients dispensed and mixed together to prepare batches of medicated feed during the course of each day.
While prior art machinery is capable of precisely metering, dispensing and mixing metered quantities of microingredients to form slurry supplements having diverse nutritional and medicinal properties, prior art microingredient machines nevertheless suffer from a number of significant shortcomings and drawbacks.
In particular, prior art microingredient dispensing and mixing machines by their very design do not permit the operators thereof to accurately account for the total amounts of microingredients contained within the various components of the system. Consequently, it has been quite difficult to accurately comply with preexisting FDA regulations.
Also, prior art microingredient dispensing and mixing machines by their very design have required that feedmill operators manually create microingredient inventory records and reports. As such, feedmill operators and managers alike have not been provided opportunities to easily and accurately satisfy FDA regulations when preparing microingredient inventory records and reports. In addition, the use of prior art machinery and processes have made it very difficult to accurately account for losses in microingredient inventory during inventory receiving operations, dispensing bin and tank refilling operations, and dispensing and mixing operations.
Thus, there is a great need in the art for improved equipment and techniques that facilitate the accurate accounting of microingredients supplied to programmed microingredient machines for dispensing and mixing, while overcoming the shortcomings and drawbacks of prior art equipment and methodologies.